Quiet

A strange phenomenon is taking place at my home right now.

It's absolutely quiet!

My mom is in town and took Samuel and Bella to the store and Isaac and Jenna are both napping. It's been YEARS since it's been totally quite in my house during the middle of the day!

Living with Wild Animals!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm living in a zoo with wild animals!

Samuel wanted to go to Marv's for dinner in celebration because he finished his big 100 lesson reading book. Yeah for Samuel!

At home Samuel had gathered a quarter for each of the kids so they could get a treat out of the machines. When we got there, the place was packed so Chuck hurried to get in line and all the kids scattered in various directions with their quarters. I was holding the baby and trying to keep an eye on everyone.

Then I heard a collective gasp from a few people behind me and turned around to see Bella on the floor quickly gathering and eating candy. Apparently her candy had escaped the machine and hit the floor scattering everywhere. There were two young couples sitting in a booth near where the incident was taking place. They didn't have any kids, but one of the girls was pregnant. They were looking at Bella frantically eating candy off the floor with a look of horror and amusement in their eyes as they tried to keep from laughing. (I remember those days before I had kids of my own and I would look at people with their kids and think, my child will never do something like that! Probably why I now have children that do that sort of thing you swore you'd never let them do all the time!)

Because she was creating a scene, I felt like I needed to be a "good" mom and tell her that we shouldn't eat candy off the floor, but I was holding the baby and when Bella makes up her mind about something it's pretty hard to keep her from doing it. I was trying to grab her arm and pull her up off the floor, but in the mean time, Isaac ran up and started eating the candy off the floor. At that point I just looked at the couples and laughingly said, "Oh don't mind my kids!".

Hiding under the table, wearing crazy clothes and messy hair - another thing I swore my kids would never do!

And then Isaac took his straw blew water all over the table and slurped it up. Of course that was better then when a few minutes later he abandoned the straw and just put his tongue on the table and licked it up.

To top of the evening, as we were trying to get ready to go Chuck tipped over a full glass of water right in my lap! (Chuck wants everyone to know that I had stacked the cups on the tray about 4 high and the top one had all of the ice and water. It was not a very stable setup.) And that is why sometimes I wonder if we're living in a zoo. But at least it's always entertaining around here!

We took the kids to the rodeo parade. It was a pretty good size parade, but they didn't throw very much candy. The kids had a great time and quickly ate the few pieces of candy they managed to gather.

Now Bella girl was just a mess! She literally fell in the gutter full of water at least 4 or 5 times. I'm not sure what she was doing to keep falling, but her skirt was dripping wet. I was sitting on the grass in the shade with the baby and looked up to see Bella down on her knees drinking water from the gutter! Now eating candy off the floor doesn't really bother me, but drinking water out of the gutter that is just GROSS! Finally Chuck saw what she was doing and put a stop to it. He had to stop her from trying to get a drink several more times. Oh what to do with this crazy girl of mine!

Labor Day

My parents came for a visit over Labor Day weekend. We did all sorts of activities including fishing, outdoor cooking, picking peaches, swimming and just having fun together.


We went fishing at Pine Valley and Bella kept falling down as she was running all over the place, climbing and jumping off rocks. It's very rare that she cries when she falls, but this particular fall she face planted. She made us all laugh when she came running, fell down, jumped up and promptly declared, "Not again!"

We took two poles fishing, but one was not working well. Chuck was trying to catch a fish with the good pole for the entire time we had been there while my dad was playing around with the kids. I finally told Chuck to let my dad give it a try. He gave me a crusty look and handed the pole over to my dad. (There are years of history behind this look - we having been teasing Chuck since before we were married about his poor fishing skills because he can NEVER catch a fish when we're with my family!) So my dad threw in the pole without even changing the bait and just a few minutes later he caught a fish and let Samuel reel it in. Chuck just had to laugh and concede that truly Grandpa Clayton is the master fisherman!

Grandpa also taught Samuel how to start a small fire with the magnifying glass. He first did this inside with some newspaper and then I told him these type of activities are best done outside!

Trina, Wes and the kids joined us later when we went up the canyon to cook tin foil dinners. We had fun talking and watching the kids run wild.

Wes kept the kids entertained.

Chuck is always our master outdoor chief.

But it was dark by the time the food FINALLY got done and the babies were upset and crying. The food tasted great even in the dark.

We headed to the church peach orchard on Labor Day. The kids had so much fun picking peaches. Bella was running wild gathering all the low peaches that had been left behind. We kept having to threaten her to keep us in site so she wouldn't get lost. There were so many people there and most of the fruit had already been gathered. We tried to get jars for canning at Wal-Mart but and they had gone through 2 pallets that morning.

Who needs a ladder when you have Bella girl!

During the week Grandma Jerri Lynn made us lots of yummy freezer jam with all the peaches we picked. Samuel has been loving the jam. I also made a few peach pies with the best recipe from my aunt. It was delicious!

We also took the kids swimming. And a miracle - Isaac actually got in the water! He even went down the slide with Chuck and had a great time splashing around. This from the kid who screams when we try and get him in the pool!

Kindergarten

The first day of Kindergarten.

They wear uniforms so not much choice for what to wear on the first day!

His fabulous teacher - Love her already!

The yummy back to school treat!

And the super long post all about my little guy starting school (I'm still wiping away the tears!)

The day that I had been anticipating, dreading, praying about, pondering, debating and stressing over finally arrived. Samuel started Kindergarten. It literally has taken me years to decide where to send not only him, but the rest of the kids to school. In the spring, I had him registered a three different schools as well as information for homeschooling. I was driving Chuck crazy with my constant going back and forth on what to do. Sometimes I tend to analysis things way to much! I finally came to a decision that I felt good about and we moved ahead.

Somehow the summer went entirely too fast even though Kindergarten for Samuel started almost an entire month after the rest of the schools started. My mom was staying with us that week so I was able to take Samuel to school without having to drag all the kids with me. The night before, Jenna actually slept through the night for the first time and I couldn’t even enjoy the fact that she didn’t wake me up several times because I wasn’t able to sleep anyway. I was too full of so many mixed emotions for the next day.

I held Samuel’s hand as we walked into the school and to his classroom. I was trying really hard to hold it together! I helped him find his name tag, put away his backpack and school supplies get started on his writing assignment and then I just stood by him not wanting to leave. I had the biggest lump in my throat as I finally knelt down beside him, gave him a big hug, told him I loved him and that I was going. He looked up from busily writing and said, “Okay mom, see ya”.

He was great, but I was falling apart on the inside. I got outside the classroom door and then the tears started to flow as I hurried out of the school. I arrived back home and my mom was a little frazzled telling me how Isaac was crying, Jenna was crying and I quickly told her since she didn’t seem to notice that I was crying too.

When I went to pick Samuel up I asked him a million questions about his first day. Then when we got home I gave him a special treat I saw on the Family Fun website. (I used my sister-in-laws yummy homemade brownie recipe and then added some frosting – it was delicious!)

The remaining days of the week I walked him into his classroom each morning. He has a wonderful teacher and I asked her lots of questions each day too. Chuck was laughing at me saying it’s SO obvious he’s your first kid going to school. Yes, I know it’s obvious!!

And then it happened. The last day I was walking him into school he didn’t want to hold my hand any more. I knew this day was coming and again I had to fight back the tears – my little boy is growing up too fast!

Since that first day, things have been interesting. Samuel loved school the first day, was a little less excited the second day and by the end of the week he was just upset. Again I was stressed wondering if I’d made the right decision. Yes, I know it’s my first child! After talking to him, we finally got to the root of the problem. That first week they were getting things set up with the computers and so some kids were able to do computers, but he was not one of them. And let’s just say that this completely ruined Samuel’s whole week! But on Monday they began doing computers every day and he is a changed little guy.

He has come home every day excitedly telling me all that he’s learned. Yesterday he got in the car and said, “Mom did you know that the earth is made of three things – land, water and air.” Then he sang me this long song all about land, water and air. Today he came home and wanted to get the globe down so he could sing me another song about the continents. (His teacher has lots of great songs she uses in her teaching.) He also told me he LOVES science – that’s my boy – we love science and math around here! So what has made the difference – his favorite - learning on the computers each day. Since they also do their at home reading on the computer, his teacher has been able to move him ahead to the level he is currently reading at.

Tonight as I tucked him into bed and asked him what his favorite part of the day was he said doing computer work at school. So tonight I am feeling thankful that we made the right decision for him. We sure do miss the guy even though he is only gone for a few hours each day. This morning after we said our morning prayer Samuel got up and said, “Bella give me a hug because I have to go to school now”. (Is it too early to start dreading 1st grade and him being gone all day?) But I’m glad he is learning new things and loving it.

Food No One Wanted

Lots of things I could blog about - Samuel's first day of Kindergarten, Bella starting Joy School, fun Labor Day weekend, making endless supplies of peach jam - but I just wanted to write this quick story because it just makes me laugh and it so describes Jenna at this stage.

My mom has been here this week which has been so helpful because it's been really crazy around here. She's been busy making jam from all the peaches we picked at the orchard while watching the kids as I've been running all around trying to get caught up on the many things I've put off for months because it's really hard to do any of them with all the kids in tow. But as she soon remembered, it's hard to get anything productive done when you have a house full of little kids.

Today my mom noticed Jenna had something in her mouth and asked Bella, "What's Jenna eating?" To which Bella replied, "Food no one wanted".

It just makes me laugh because Jenna has really turned into quite the little scavenger since she has started worming her way all over the house. She can usually be found under the table or in the pantry to gather the fallen crumbs.

6 Months

My sweet baby Jenna at 6 months.
I have lots of other 6 month pictures, but as always I'm behind on editing. This one was one of my favorites. And since she will be 7 months tomorrow I thought I'd better write a little about what she's been doing this past month.


This month she began to feed herself little puff crackers but has since moved on to Cheerios. I just love those little fingers working so hard to pick things up and transfer them successfully to the mouth. I love that she can sit in her chair and feed herself while we are all eating at the table. The kids also love to see her feed herself and are always giving her more to eat.

She also likes to "stand" by herself. She can actually stay this way for a long time if no one tries to "help" her and knocks her down instead.

And all month she's been on the go. She doesn't crawl in the traditional way, she instead moves like a caterpillar or it actually reminds me of the worm breaking dancing move. It's amazing how fast she can get around if she really wants something. The other morning I briefly lost track of her because she was hiding under the bed. She had actually pushed that round cylinder in the picture out from under the bed. Now every morning while I am getting ready she worms her way under the bed. I guess she finds some interesting things under there! She also is always worming her way onto the concrete floor to pick up any little crumbs or toys the kids drop. The other day I found her under the table eating some rice Isaac had thrown on the ground. Sometimes I just can't sweep fast enough!

This little girl gets so much love from everyone. One of the kids is constantly hugging her, kissing her, trying to drag her around or giving her toys. I don't think she ever has a moments peace! The poor thing sometimes looks at the other kids and just lets out a yell as if to say, "enough already"!

We sure do LOVE our little Bug a Boo!

Tears

I'm having one of those evenings when I just really want to cry. I took Samuel with me shopping for groceries tonight and then for an ice cream. We had such a delightful evening! He even made standing in line for a 1/2 hour at Wal Mart behind nightmare coupon lady not so bad.

Somehow this little guy that used to scream at the top of his lungs in the store, try to pull things off the shelves, insist on helping push the cart so he could see the wheels go round and throw big fits when he didn't get want he wanted has turned into such an amazing kid. We talked and talked because he always has a million questions about everything, we laughed (especially when he loundly exclaimed after picking up a package of goodies, "Are you even kidding me - this is only $1), we held hands as we walked across the parking lot. Then when we got home and I tucked him into bed and kneeled beside him as he said his prayers I had to hold the tears back. Tears of joy, tears of sadness - he's starting Kindergarten next week and I've been feeling heartache for months just thinking about it, tears only a mother can shed as she sees her baby growing and becoming such a great kid.